OBJECTIVES:

Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are inflammatory diseases that affect airflow in the lungs and globally; their prevalence are 6.2% and 4.9%, respectively. In the European Union (EU), 600, 000 people die each year because of respiratory diseases. Recent studies identified the non-adherence rate to COPD medication(s) varying between 22-93% and asthma medication(s) at >50%. The First European Congress on Adherence to Therapy urged Europe to place non-adherence to inhaled respiratory medication higher on the policy agenda. The objective of this study is to determine the frequency of and reasons for non-adherence to asthma and COPD medications from 5 European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom).

METHODS:

The National Health and Wellness Survey (NHWS), a self-administered, internet-based cross-sectional survey of adults, measured non-adherence to asthma and COPD medicines using the Medication Adherence Reasons Scale (MAR-Scale). NHWS participants who self-reported taking daily prescription medication(s) to treat asthma and COPD responded to the 19 reasons for non-adherence and one global item using an 8-point scale. Frequencies quantified the reasons for non-adherence “in the past 7 days” from the MAR-Scale.

RESULTS:

NHWS data from 2021 included 2,136 and 1,202 respondents who self-reported asthma and COPD diagnoses, respectively, as well as self-administered daily prescription medicine(s). Based on the MAR-Scale, 44.76% reported non-adherence in asthma, and 30.53% in COPD. The most common reason for non-adherence to asthma or COPD medications was “skipping the medicine to see if it is still needed.” Many respondents also indicated that they “simply missed the medicine,” though the mean number of days missed for taking medication was the lowest in this group.

CONCLUSIONS:

Defining and discussing the most common reasons to non-adherence in asthma and COPD patients will help in the development of targeted interventions to these groups.